Google and Facebook have access to internal iOS apps restored by Apple following certificate spat

It's been a tense week for the tech giants

What just happened? If this week has shown us anything, it’s proved how much power Apple holds within the tech industry. After it was revealed that both Google and Facebook were violating the Cupertino firm's developer rules, both companies had access to their internal iOS apps temporarily revoked.

The saga began earlier this week when Facebook was discovered to be paying people as young as thirteen $20 for total access to their phones. The market research app was distributed outside of the App Store using Apple’s Enterprise Certificate policy, a certificate program primarily designed to allow employers root access to employees’ phones.

But Facebook wasn’t the only one engaging in such practices. It was later revealed that Google was also breaking Apple’s rules by using the same method to distribute its own data-collection app, called ‘Screenwise Meter.’

Both Facebook and Google disabled their controversial apps on iOS devices, but it looked like a case of 'too little, too late,' as Apple revoked their enterprise certificates, blocking the firms from distributing their internal-only iOS apps on the companies’ networks. Google and Facebook workers, beta testers, and research participants lost access to internal iOS versions of pre-launch test apps. Even their food, office collaboration, and shuttle apps were affected.

Both tech giants have now had their certificates restored, allowing access to their internal iOS apps. While consumers shouldn’t have been impacted by what happened, the temporary disruption it caused may have delayed work on some projects and updates.

“We have had our Enterprise Certification, which enables our internal employee applications, restored. We are in the process of getting our internal apps up and running. To be clear, this didn’t have an impact on our consumer-facing services,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.